Pakistan to move Court of Arbitration against India

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has ultimately decided to move the Court of Arbitration (CoA) against India for committing blatant breaches of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) 1960 by erecting 330MW Kishanganga Hydropower and 850MW Ratle Hydropower Projects with objectionable designs, fearing if projects are completed it will inflict damage to the water flows which are destined to reach the lower riparian country.

Khawaja Asif, Federal Minister for Water and Power, has confirmed the development in his twitter account saying that the Nawaz government has taken this decision after consulting all stakeholders. “We have decided to take the issue to full court of arbitration,” he said. The minister said that talks with India continued for two and half years at the Permanent Commission of Indus Waters (PCIW) on both the projects, but could not yield results.

However, India invited Pakistan’s concerned authorities to discuss the dispute under IWT and to this effect, Pakistan’s eight-member delegation headed by Secretary Water and Power Younas Dhagha is currently in India for two days (14-15 July).

India is in the process of building the Kishanganga Hydropower on Ganga tributary that will impact the water flows in Jhelum River and is also currently constructing MW Ratle hydropower project on the Chenab River which will also hurt Pakistan’s water interests.

The top mandarins of the Ministry of Water and Power told The News that if the 850MW Ratle Hydropower Project on Chenab River gets constructed under its existing objectionable design, the water flow of Chenab river at Head Marala will reduce by 40 percent which will be very detrimental to the irrigation in central Punjab of Pakistan. India has awarded the contract of the Rattle project to a private company that will run the project on BOT (build, operate and transfer) basis for 35 years and then it would hand over the project to India.

This dam will be three times larger than the Baglihar hydropower dam. India has already carved out a plan to generate 32,000MW of electricity on Pakistan’s rivers that will enable New Delhi to regulate the water flows that are destined to reach Pakistan.

The relevant officials disclosed that Pakistan has raised three objections on Kishanganga project’s design saying that the pondage of the project is 7.5 million cubic meter which is excessive and it should be one million cubic meter. Pakistan also wants India to raise intake by up to 4 meters and also raise spillways up to 9 meters high.

And on the issue of Ratle Hydropower plant, Islamabad raised four objections. Pakistan wants India to maintain free board at 1 meter whereas India wants to keep it at 2 meters. In addition India wants to keep the pondage of 24 million cubic meters but Pakistan wants the pondage should of 8 million cubic meters.

Pakistan also wants the intake of the project should be raised by up to 8.8 meters and it spillways should be raised by up to 20 meters. Coming to the decision of moving Court of Arbitration, the officials said the country’s top legal fraternity headed by Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) earlier remained in the process to assess as to whether Pakistan should move Neutral Expert (NE) or Court of Arbitration (CoA) against India for violations of 1960 Indus Waters Treaty in building the 330 MW Kishanganga Hydropower and 850 MW Rattle hydropower project with faulty designs.

The decision to move the World Bank for appointment of neutral experts has now been abandoned after an internal debate of the top officials of the ministry of water and power and legal fraternity headed by Pakistan’s Attorney General of Pakistan. Debate on whether Court of Arbitration should be moved or Neutral Expert on the dispute for justice continued for months as legal fraternity was of the view that moving Neutral Expert that consists of one man is highly risky.

The legal fraternity had also argued that Court of Arbitration mostly consists of 7-members judges and they cannot be influenced by any of the party to the dispute so it would be sensible to move the court of arbitration seeking justice against the breaches of IWT provisions in the designs of the said projects being built by New Dehli on Pakistan’s rivers.

However, the government took more than eight months to decide on moving the court of arbitration on the faulty designs of MW Kishanganga Hydropower and 850 MW Ratle hydropower projects. “Now time will tell what will be the implications of the belated decision in moving CoA,” the official sources said.

Following no response from New Delhi in the stipulated period over Islamabad’s offer seeking the consent for joint nomination of Neutral Expert, Pakistan had stepped up its efforts to get legal battle initiated at international platform against India with a view to saving water interests to be hurt in both the Chenab and Jehlum rivers in the wake of ongoing construction of 330MW Kishanganga Hydropower and 850MW Ratle hydropower project with faulty designs.

The Nawaz government is serious to win the battle and it can be gauged by the fact that it has hired the consortium of two US based law firms that include Three Crowns and Walliams & Connelly. “Both law firms are also well known lobbyists in US,” a senior government official of Law ministry told The News. He said that earlier Pakistan was used to hire the individual lawyers of international repute to fight the legal battle on hydropower projects erected by India on Pakistan’s rivers.

Pakistan Commissioner of Indus Water Mirza Asif Beg said: “Now we have exhausted all the endeavors enshrined in the Indus Waters Treaty 1960 at the level of Permanent Commission of Indus Waters (PCIW) to resolve the issues of faulty designs of 330 MW Kishanganga Hydropower Project being built on Ganga river in held Kashmir and 850 MW Ratle hydropower project being erected on the Chenab river by New Delhi and the next stage is left to move either Court of Arbitration or Neutral Expert.”

He said Pakistan’s foreign office had earlier written a letter to India seeking the consent for appointment of neutral expert over the designs of the said two projects as both the countries at the level of Permanent Commission of Indus Waters (PCIW) have failed to resolve the issues. So far India has built Dalhasti hydropower project of 330MW, Baglihar of 450MW and now it has started a new project named Ratle hydropower project.

On Neelum River that joins the Jehlum River in Pakistan, India has already completed Uri-1, Uri-II hydropower project and is also close to completing the Kishenganga hydropower project. So much so it has also built two hydropower projects on Indus River that include Nimmo Bazgo and Chattak hydropower project.

According to the documents available with The News, the Ratle project envisages harnessing the hydro-power potential of the river from EL 1000m to EL 887m. This is the concrete gravity dam at a height of 170, will be built across the river just downstream of the Ratle village and an underground power house with an installed capacity of 4X140MW is proposed near the Juddi village, both in Doda District.

As far as IWT is concerned I think India can develop as many Dams it wants but India can't divert the waters from Pakistan. Plus the tribunal can force Indian side to modify the design if it doesn't comply to some the standards. So as far as the case of constructing the dam is concerned we should not be worried about.

They are just wasting their tax payers money ...................if pakistaan can build CPEC in gulaam kashmir ..................then we also build our dams in j & k ...................and yes we will definitely divert water & they will never be able to prove it .................dams in India + dams in Afganistaan = drought in pakistaan .

On 21 June 2000, the 16-judge Bench headed by Gilbert Guillaume of France ruled—with a 14–2 verdict—upholding India's submission that the court had no jurisdiction in this matter.[3][27] Pakistan's claims were dropped, without recourse to appeal, and the outcome was seen as a decision highly favourable to India.[4][5][28] The Pakistan government had spent close to 25 million Pakistani rupees (approx. $400,000) on the case.[2

I am simply amazed by the level of comments made by you guys. Please have some respect for Pakistan and give some relevant comments here. Enough of Pakistan bashing, if there is nothing positive you can share here kindly just read the post and leave.

They don't respect any bilateral or international agreement, we should do the same by dumping this IWT.

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IWT kind of favours India, if we scrap the that would be bad for our goodwill image in the world. Also we have promised not to divert the waters from Indus, Chenab and Jhelum but the remaining 3 tributaries i.e. Ravi, Beas and Satluj are completly ours, we can exploit it's water any way we can. Infact now a days Pakistani media more concerned with the way India is using the remaining tributaries. They call it Water Terrorism from India.

IWT kind of favours India, if we scrap the that would be bad for our goodwill image in the world. Also we have promised not to divert the waters from Indus, Chenab and Jhelum but the remaining 3 tributaries i.e. Ravi, Beas and Satluj are completly ours, we can exploit it's water any way we can. Infact now a days Pakistani media more concerned with the way India is using the remaining tributaries. They call it Water Terrorism from India.

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We don't need to worry about our Image as far as Paki suffering is concerned.

Pakis should be humiliated and spit at will. If i have any power in my hand, i would've order the Indus to be poisoned with carcinogenics.

I am simply amazed by the level of comments made by you guys. Please have some respect for Pakistan and give some relevant comments here. Enough of Pakistan bashing, if there is nothing positive you can share here kindly just read the post and leave.

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respect for Porkistaan ?? .................... It is the same country which killed our innocent civilians & soldiers .....................the country which is responsible of terrorism in India ...............the country which want to kill all the Hindus ..................the country which attacked us 4 times ..............sorry i dont have any respect for this terrorist country .......................
every thing is fare in love & war ................and this is war ..........
they deserve punishment ...............we will destroy their industries , their agriculture & their economy & yes china (& cpec ) will also help us by destroying their Industries with cheap Chinese products ...............

I am simply amazed by the level of comments made by you guys. Please have some respect for Pakistan and give some relevant comments here. Enough of Pakistan bashing, if there is nothing positive you can share here kindly just read the post and leave.

IWT kind of favours India, if we scrap the that would be bad for our goodwill image in the world. Also we have promised not to divert the waters from Indus, Chenab and Jhelum but the remaining 3 tributaries i.e. Ravi, Beas and Satluj are completly ours, we can exploit it's water any way we can. Infact now a days Pakistani media more concerned with the way India is using the remaining tributaries. They call it Water Terrorism from India.

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IWT kind of favours India
really that is why u had to use the term kind of
and the follow through was pretty lame as usual,

when all the concerned rivers pass through our lands who r they to demand.
IWT favours porkistan and therefore it is the only treaty with india that porkistan has not broken since it favours them not india.

stupid congress sold india when they signed this treaty.
international laws r there, but india should have interpreted it according to her needs and implemented it according to evolving general situation based on good behavior of porkistan only.

porkis give trouble we cut off water . simple and honest

our goodwill image in the world is dependent on IWT , thank u for the joke of the century.

china can roughshod SCS ruling with impunity , china builds dam on brahmaputra , and what can we do , nothing, and u think india should play mahatma.

what porkies are calling us is bothering u,
their propaganda is koran for u now,
they also call us occupiers so according to ur lame reasoning we should vacate kashmir?

who ru ?

lets see

by the way watch videos in utube where porkis themselves admit that the water crises is their own doing, like u they are short sighted

As far as IWT is concerned I think India can develop as many Dams it wants but India can't divert the waters from Pakistan. Plus the tribunal can force Indian side to modify the design if it doesn't comply to some the standards. So as far as the case of constructing the dam is concerned we should not be worried about.

IWT kind of favours India, if we scrap the that would be bad for our goodwill image in the world. Also we have promised not to divert the waters from Indus, Chenab and Jhelum (source ?)but the remaining 3 tributaries i.e. Ravi, Beas and Satluj are completly ours, we can exploit it's water any way we can.(The only Truth) Infact now a days Pakistani media more concerned with the way India is using the remaining tributaries. They call it Water Terrorism from India.